Process of making smokeless powder.



Nrrn STATES ArnNr Fries.

HUDSON MAXIM AND ROBERT C. SCIIUPPHAUS, OF NEW YORK, Y.

PROCESS OF MAKING SMOKELESS POWDER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 640,213, dated January2, 1900.

Application filed November 29, 1893. Serial No. 492,403- (No specimens.)

To all whom it may concern.- 7

Beit known that We, HUDSON MAXIM, of the city and county of New York,and ROBERT C. SOHiiPPHAUs, of the city of New York, Brooklyn,) county ofKings, in the State of New ork, citizens of the United States, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in the Manufacture ofSmokeless Gunpowder, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates generally to the manufacture of smokelessgunpowder more especially adapted for use in small-arms; and

it has for its object to provide for its manufacture in a more simpleand efficient manner than heretofore, to impart a structural characterto an otherwise amorphous material, and to secure an explosive of anydesired degree of density and sensitiveness to the primer.

In carrying out our invention we employ as the base of said powderpyroxylin, which may be, and preferably is, of varying degrees ofnitration, and therefore of varying solubility, for reasons hereinafterexplained, which pyroxylin or guncotton is pulped or reduced to a veryfine state of division. WVe prefer to employ a mixture oftri-nitro-cellulosethat is, nitro-cellulose of the highest degree ofnitration and that which is insoluble in.

ether and alcohol and in wood-alcohol-and nitro-cellulose or pyroxylinof a lower grade of nitration-such, for instance, as collodionpyroxylin-and which is soluble in ether and alcohol or in wood-alcohol.o do not confine ourselves to any particular proportion of these gradesof pyroxylin, but have found in the light of present experience thatabout three parts of tri-nitro-cellulose to one part of collodionpyroxylin or di-nitro-cellulose give the best results.

In this specification tri-nitro-cellulose will be termed insolublepyroxylin and di-nitro cellulose or collodion cotton soluble pyroxylin,these terms being familiar to those in the trade as designating theserespective grades of nitro-cellulose, although of course thetri-nitro-cellulose is solublein certain menstrua-as, for instance,acetone or acetate of ethyl-but, as we have said, insoluble in ether andalcohol, in wood-alcohol, and in ordinary menstrua.

In practice we thoroughly incorporate the soluble and insolublepyroxylins, preferably in a pulping-engine or a poaching-machine, toobtain a thorough mechanical intermixing of the two grades of pyroxylin.The pulped and thoroughly-mixed material is then preferably run intoapaper or paper-board making machine or other machine adapted to themanufacture of strawboard, cardboard, or pulped board, particularly thelatter, which process of paper making need not be described here. Thematerial, however, may be otherwise treated and brought to a condi tionto be shaped or molded. WVhen the pyroxylin pulp is thus made into apaper or paper-board and of such thickness as will best serve thepurpose for which it is to be employed, as hereinafter explained, thesheets or rolls, as the case may be, are taken from the paper-makingmachine and cut into sheets of a convenient size for handling. Thesesheets are then hung or placed in a receiver, from which the air ispreferably exhausted. The solvent of the soluble pyroxylin is thenadmitted into the receiver, preferably in the form of vapor or spray, sothat the soluble pyroxylin is softened or reduced to a gelatinous orplastic mass. Heat is then admitted to the receiver and the vapors ofthe solvent drawn away and condensed for further use. The paper orpaper-board when taken from the paper-machine or afterward, beforecompletely freed of the solvent, may be run through acalendering-machine or submitted to pressure and rendered more dense andsmooth, and a certain amount of sizing material may also be used, suchas glue or the whites of eggs or similar substitutes and starch. In thiscase less solvent is necessary to reduce the pyroxylin paper to suchdensity as may be required. When the sheets of py roxylin have becomesufficiently dried or freed from the solvent, they are run through agranulating-machine, which cuts them into preferably smallparallelograms or grains of treating it with a size, and theng'ranulating' rectangular form. The powder is then ready and drying thesame. to be packed and used. In witness whereof We have hereunto signedHaving thus described our invention, what our names in the presence oftwo witnesses. 5 we claim is Y HUDSON MAXIM.

The herein-described process of 1nak1n smokeless powder which consistsin pulping ROBERT SCHUPPHAUS' or reducing a pyroxylin to a fine state ofdi- Witnesses; vision, then treating it with a solvent,- and GEO. H.GRAHAM;

16 before it is completely freed from the solvent E. L. TODD.

